One of the lovely sights which most people miss when they visit Palakkad and Malampuzha is the Malampuzha Rock Garden, which is only 800 meters from the Dam. Very few people, who happen to go there, are actually awed by the impressive collection of artwork created out of waste materials. Continue reading “Beautiful Rock Garden at Malampuzha”

Here are some lovely sights of divine procession of Devi (Goddess) of Manappullikavu temple in Palakkad City.

On the last day of the yearly ten-day long temple festivities of Manappullikavu, the Deity of Devi is taken on a divine procession around the streets in the localities near the temple. The procession usually lasts for around two hours. The Devi is taken around accompanied by a number of adorned elephants, drummers, dancers and decorations. The households along the route of the procession offer bananas and food for the elephants and drinks and sweets to those accompanying the Goddess. Thousands of devotees line up the route of divine procession and seek blessings of Devi. Continue reading “Divine Procession of Devi”

This enormous Nandi Bull statue is more than 350 years old and can be seen on the way to Chamundi Hills in Mysore, Karnataka, India. The statue has been carved out of a single black stone boulder. It has a height of 16 feet and a length of 24 feet and is considered to be the third largest Nandi Bull statue in India. This is one of the landmarks of Mysore.Continue reading “Nandi Bull of Mysore”

This fantastic statue of Panchamukhi Hanuman is situated at Shirdi village in Maharashtra. This is one of the few idols of the Hanumanji with five faces. In addition to the face of Hanuman, the idol has four other faces Hayagriva, Narasimha, Garuda and Varaha. This idol has ten arms, wielding various weapons and items. The five faces signifies five directions – South, North, East, West and Upward.

This statue in front of Shri Sai Prasadalaya depicts Saibaba, the spiritual master, fakir and saint of India, cooking food for the needy in Shirdi village. It is said that Baba used to go to the market personally to purchase all the materials required for cooking the food. He used to cook himself and even put his hand in the vessel to stir the boiling food. The boiling pot did not harm his fingers or hand. Continue reading “Shri Sai Prasadalaya”

A captivating lovely sight at Guruvayur is the beautiful display Kerala Mural Painting on the walls of Guruvayur Temple. Not many are aware that, under the patronage of Guruvayur Devaswam, an Institute of Mural Paintings has been established in 1989 which offers Kerala mural painting classes. The mural painting classes also include preparing for a five-year National Diploma course.

An awesome lovely sight near Guruvayur temple is the life size statue of Gajarajan Guruvayur Keshavan. Guruvayur Keshavan, who, according to records, was donated to the temple by Royal family of Nilambur on January 4, 1922, is the most famous and widely known temple elephant of Kerala. At that time he was only 10 year old. Padmanabhan was the leading elephant at that time and Keshavan quickly imbibed the impressive stature and gestures of the great temple elephant. While standing among other elephants Keshavan’s head always was held majestically higher. Continue reading “Guruvayur Keshavan”

Importance of Guruvayur

Guruvayur is a small town in the beautiful land of Kerala. However, it is very prominent for its ancient and important Shri Krishna Temple, which is fourth biggest temple in India in terms of number of people visiting per day. According to the legent, the idol was brought here from Dwaraka by Vayu Deva and Brahaspathy, before the city was destroyed. Hence, Guruvayur takes its name from Guru (Brahaspathy) and Vayu (Vayudeva).

Guruvayur temple is considered by devotees as the abode of Lord Vishnu on earth (Bhoomi Vaikundam). The form of Divine idol here (Guruvayurappan) is the one which was revealed to Vasudeva and Devaki, during birth of Krishna. The beautiful idol of Vishnu in this temple is shown wearing Tulasi garland and his divine arms holding Pancahjanya (Conch), Sudarshana Chakra, Kaumodaki (mace) and lotus. However, the Meshanti (Chief Priest) and other priests create various different magnificent forms of the divine every day using sandlewood, decorations and ornaments. Devotees at large prefer to visualize the deity as Krishna in his childhood (Balakrishna). Continue reading “Guruvayur Temple”